Teaching methods and academic performance of students in Civic Education in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria

Teaching methods and academic performance of students i

Abstract

This study interrogated the prevalence and effectiveness of teaching methods on students’ academic performance in Civic Education in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was directed by two research questions and one hypothesis. The design used was quasi-experimental. The population of the study comprised all Senior School two (SS2) students (3,193 in number) in the 23 public secondary schools in the area in 2018/2019 academic year. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select the 362 respondents (255 teachers and 107 students) for the study. The instruments used for data collection were Teaching Method Checklist (TMC), observation and a Civic Education Achievement Test (CEAT). Data collected were analysed using simple percentage and independent t-test and tested at .05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the prevalent teaching methods in Calabar Metropolis are lecture, discussion and demonstration methods. It was also found that students’ performance was found to differ significantly after being taught with discovery and lecture methods with those taught with discovery method being more impacted upon. Based on these findings, it was recommended that teachers should be frequently retrained and supervised to enable them utilise current and best teaching methods. Teachers were also encouraged to use learner-centred teaching methods like discovery method rather than teacher-centred teaching methods like lecture method to curtail students’ poor academic performance.